{"id":66394,"date":"2026-03-13T08:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=66394"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:48:16","slug":"vietnamese-cooking-banh-mi-sandwich-and-pho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/vietnamese-cooking-banh-mi-sandwich-and-pho\/","title":{"rendered":"The basics of Vietnamese cooking: How to make a juicy Banh Mi sandwich and delicious pho"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Basics
Basics of the Vietnamese pantry, from upper left clockwise to center: fish sauce, \u201cThai\u201d basil, sweetened condensed milk, ginger, galangal, daikon, mint, chile peppers, cilantro, green onions, green papaya, rice noodles and lemongrass. Photos: Bill St. John.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looked at one way, the entirety of the basics of Vietnamese cooking are merely four in number: sour, salt, sweet and chile heat.<\/p>\n

For sour, Vietnamese cooks use the acidity of several foodstuffs such as rice vinegar, lime juice, tamarind, even the tartness native to lemongrass. Salt comes by way of both soy and fish sauces and from the country\u2019s predilection for Maggi brand seasoning. But also, liberal dustings of salt are used to cook other foods such as pork shoulder or roast chicken that bring their salty savor to things such as banh mi sandwiches or rice noodle bowls.<\/p>\n

The sweetness in Vietnamese cooking is almost always mere palm or cane sugar\u2014both are ubiquitous\u2014but it also arrives via coconut milk and is the mark of the country\u2019s famed use of sweetened condensed cow\u2019s milk, itself used for desserts and the well-known coffee preparation. Chile heat? That fire of capsaicin oil? Exclamation points throughout Viet eating, pho sure.<\/p>\n

But more important is the interplay of these four basics, often in a single dish. As with much of Asian cooking, what is most important are the yin and yang of salt beside sweet, acidity with saltiness, hot with cool.

Read more great articles and get cooking advice<\/a> from Bill St. John. <\/div>\n

And then there are the foods that become the playgrounds for these interactions: a vast array of vegetables, rice in a myriad of forms and turns (noodles, sticks, \u201cpaper,\u201d steamed, fried, sticky, puffed) and many forms of animal and aquatic protein.<\/p>\n

Once you stock a Vietnamese pantry, you\u2019ll also notice the influence of six decades of French colonization. One recipe here is a textbook example, with its baguette-like bread roll, liver pat\u00e9, butter and mayonnaise for fat and generosity in the greens department.<\/p>\n

A Vietnamese cook once told me that the prominent meat broth-based soup called pho (pronounced fuh, as in \u201cfun,\u201d but without the \u201cn\u201d) is both a toss to the French idea of broth-building and a corruption of the French word \u201cfeu,\u201d as in \u201cpot au feu<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The basics in a Vietnamese pantry are rice and fish sauce. Can\u2019t get away from them; they\u2019re served at every meal, except for dessert where rice often appears once again but fish sauce generally doesn\u2019t. Vietnam, along with its neighbor Thailand, is among the top five rice-producing countries on the planet.<\/p>\n

Tagged alongside fish sauce and rice, in whatever form, is an enviable grocery store produce section of aromatic and flavorful greens and herbs. Cilantro, basil, mint, lemongrass, green onions and ginger are nearly as everyday as rice or fish sauce. Why not? They\u2019re delicious. And eminently healthy.<\/p>\n

Banh Mi Sandwich<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Makes 1; easily multiplied<\/p>\n

\"Alongside
Alongside the soup called pho, the Banh Mi sandwich is perhaps Vietnam\u2019s best-known food export.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ingredients<\/strong><\/h3>\n